Monday, 26 May 2014

Caterham on the market

(Florent Gooden DPPI for Renault Sport F1)

Tony Fernandes has apparently put his Caterham Formula One team up for sale after becoming frustrated with the lack of progress at the Leafied based outfit. Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix saw their main rivals, Marussia score their first ever Formula one points as Jules Bianchi took a fantastic 9th place finish to score two valuable points with Marussia Sporting Director Graeme Lowdon revealed that the Banbury based squad had spent £2,000 on upgrades for their car between the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix.

Caterham were unlucky not to score points themselves as Kamui Kobayashi finished the race in eleventh place. According to business website Bloomberg, the Malaysian business has lost patience with the the team and has placed a price tag of £350 million on both the Caterham F1 operation and the Caterham car company which Fernandes also owns.

Speaking to Sky Sports News at the launch of his teams new car in January, Fernandes said:

'"There comes a point where coming last all the time you don't really want to do that so this is a very pivotal year,"

He entered Formula One with the Lotus name in 2010 when the Marussia and HRT outfit's came into the sport and revealed to Sky Sports News recently that he feels that Football have done a far better job of dividing up finances among the team's then F1 has. He stated:

"There are still the haves and the have-nots, but in Formula 1 there is two or even three-tiers. F1 needs to look at itself harder - the gap between top and bottom in the Premier League is not as steep as in Formula 1 and you go to a football game never knowing who is going to win.'

At the top of Formula One you have the big spenders of Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and McLaren.

In the midfield you have Williams Martini Racing, Lotus and Force India and Toro Rosso while at the back there is Sauber, Caterham and Marussia although following their point's finish on Sunday the Banbury based outfit are in line for a wind fall from the Commercial rights holders come the end of the season when the prize money is allocated.

Fernandes, who was not in attendance in Monaco at the weekend as he was in Wembley to see QPR being promoted back into the top tier premier league. There has been no time frame set on when the team will be sold by.